Chapter 9
“RORY?” SHE BLINKED several times. When her eyes finally focused she saw she wore her clothes and sat against a stone megalith with her backpack at her side.
She jumped to her feet and scanned the area around the Druid’s Circle. But Rory was nowhere around. Carnelian tinged clouds in the western sky slowly faded into evening. What evening? How long had she been gone? No way had this all been a lucid dream.
The moment she realized she stood in the center of the stone circle, she scooped up her backpack and charged out of the border. Several yards away, she stared at the stone structures, half expecting to see flashes of light or strange images. Nothing odd appeared.
A squirrel scampered through the grass and sat on his haunches in the center of the ruins, near where she had reappeared. Nothing ominous happened to him. Okay, am I losing my mind?
Could Rory have hypnotized her last night? She’d experienced a vivid dream, or power of suggestion? Puzzled, she shook her head and flopped down on the grass and tried remembering everything that happened that night.
Pulling up grass, first one blade at a time, then by the handfuls, she refused to move. She muttered a curse. She had to remember the details.
She studied the gray stones illuminated now by the moon. An evening mist had settled in layers along the ground and swirled around the circle. How had she managed to sleep the day away? Something wasn’t right, and she would figure it out.
All she could remember were images and flashes of emotion—some frightening, some sensual. Some kind of ritual, people with robes, naked bodies and later screaming—violence. Later the images became very erotic.
Tall trees and Rory and her becoming very intimate. Nice dream, but too real to be a dream. Was it the stones like Rory said? Or did he have some hand in it?
She rummaged in her pack and got out water and a granola bar when the sound of crunching leaves made her stomach clench. Listening, heart pounding, she scanned the edge of the forest for the source of the noise.
The white buck appeared and moved into the circle. Not wanting to scare him, she remained still, watching. He bent down, nibbled at the dried grass, then lifted his head toward the moon.
The white deer vanished, and Rory now stood in the same place. Carolyn leapt to her feet, her body shaking. “Oh, my God,” she gasped, her chest heaving, knees threatening to give way. She willed herself to step back.
Rory hurried toward her. “Easy, lass. I’m sorry I startled you.” He reached out his hand and grasped hers, but she yanked it back.
She started to back away. “Can’t be… What I saw…” She ran from him toward her camp.
When she got to her camp she found her hammer and started pulling out tent stakes. She didn’t care that it was dark, she had to get out of there.
Rory stood at the edge of her campsite, watching her scurry around. “What you saw is the Sidhe curse.”
She noticed his slumped shoulders and bowed head, but she continued pulling stakes. “I know there are things in this world that can’t be explained. I even saw a ghost once, but those dreams or whatever I had today and now this… I’m not even sure I can trust what I saw.” She stared at the sky, focusing on the silver glittering stars and the white misty light from the moon.
The night sky made sense, it was real. When she looked at Rory, he seemed real, but she couldn’t grasp the image of him changing from a white deer into a man. That was too bizarre. She shivered.
Rory touched her arm gripping the hammer. “Stop, Carolyn.”
She twisted out from under his hand, casting him a warning look, then picked up her cooler and strode to her car. Muttering a curse, she stowed the cooler by the trunk and stomped back to her tent to search for her keys.
“Isn’t it a fine fresh night? A good time for a story, if you’d let me tell it.” He sat on a log by her burned-out fire.
She narrowed her eyes at him as she passed, keys in hand, on her way to her car with her arms full.
“Please,” he said, “don’t you want to know what happened at the island and those people in the robes? Or are you angry about what happened at the redwood forest? I’m sorry, Carolyn, if I overstepped my—”
How could he know? “Those weren’t dreams I had today.” Panicked one minute and now stunned, Carolyn had stopped halfway between her car and tent, staring at him as she tried to process what she’d just heard. Her mouth went dry. He reached his hand out for her to sit on the log.
“Sit a bit.” He stacked logs in the hearth and soon a fire snapped and crackled. The flickering flames cast surreal orange patterns on the canvas tent.
“Fine.” She crossed her arms over her chest and didn’t object when he retrieved a blanket from her tent. No way would she spend the rest of her life wondering what had happened to her.
Sitting beside her, he took her hand and rubbed it between his. The concern in his face pained her. Her heart leapt to her throat. Did he truly care about her or was she falling for the wrong guy again?
“I am bound to this predicament by me own error. The Druids settled in these mountains hundreds of years ago. They arranged the stone megaliths for the purpose of power and protection, then commanded the Sidhe to guard it.”
Rory prodded the fire with a stick and threw on another log. His mouth pursed while he concentrated.
More detailed images rose in her mind about their intimate scene in the redwood forest. Then the sight of the buck changing into him. This was crazy. “There has to be some logic to all this, some explanation,” she said.
“Will ye not believe me?”
“I didn’t say I wouldn’t believe you.”
“I can only tell you what I know.” He pulled the blanket around their shoulders. “I left New York City and settled in these mountains in 1687.”
Carolyn’s body went rigid. “That was over three hundred years ago!” A chill crept up her spine, making the hairs at the nape of her neck stand up.
He nodded, then continued. “I farmed and traded furs. I was warned by the locals not to hunt in the area of the Druid’s Circle, but I didn’t listen. I stumbled upon the standing stones while hunting, and I shot a deer while it stood grazing within the circle. Then a strange thing happened. The Sidhe King appeared and held a bow with a silver arrow notched in its string. He spoke in a musical tone, ‘Ye hath defied this sacred ground. The Sidhe curse ye shall suffer.’ I laughed, thinking the cold had frozen my eyes and chilled my mind.”
“You laughed?” Hysteria rose in her chest and she had to take several breaths to calm herself.
Rory grimaced. “Then the Sidhe shot his arrow into me, and I changed into the white buck. The Sidhe said, ‘Ye are cursed, but ye will have the power to heal the creatures of this forest.’ He said that the curse could only be broken during the second full moon in October on the eve of Samhain with a sacred offering.”
He leaned back and gazed into her eyes.
She’d experienced the bizarre effects of the stone circle. She’d seen him change. There was no denying it. “I believe you, Rory.”
He let out a breath and smiled. “Thank you.” His face moved close to hers and she felt his warm breath. His fingers slid along her jaw and his eyes became sultry. Tilting her chin up, he brushed his lips lightly over hers. At first she didn’t protest as he took her mouth again, more deeply, their tongues gliding and exploring.
Her heart pounded fiercely when he drew her close, crushing her breasts against his hard chest. She clung to him, enjoying his powerful arms around her. She drank in his kisses that made her head spin and the stars blur. But the images of the white buck crowded in her mind. What was he? She shoved him away. “I’m sorry, Rory. I can’t.”
“What’s wrong?”
She sidestepped his question. “What does this have to do with what happened to me today?” she persisted.
Carolyn gave him a dark, intense look that Rory suspected had nothing to do with sex. “The ley lines become more powerful whenever it’s time to break the curse,” he said. “By standing within the stone circle, you happened upon an intersection and were…moved to another place and another time.”
“Twice.”
“Yes.”
She had accepted his explanation, but appeared upset, scared—he wasn’t sure. The Glamour was still an option. He could use it to ease her resistance.
Thankfully she hadn’t asked how often he could perform the ritual. If he said only every eighty years, she might realize how desperate he was and know that he’d do almost anything to get her to help him.
“I don’t remember much what happened after I felt dizzy and saw the sparks or fireflies—just a few details—some unpleasant, some very pleasant.” She smiled. “But where did I go…and when?”
“I don’t know for sure. I figured we were on an island by the boats. And the people sounded Celtic, so it probably was an island off the coast of Scotland or Ireland several hundred years ago, considering the burnings.”
She shivered, then took a deep breath and held his gaze. “Yes, I remember that part now. It was a strange place. Some of the people were nice and others…horrible.”
He nodded. “Yes, it was horrible.”
“And I remember another place, a forest of redwood trees. That was rather nice. But I made it back okay, so I wasn’t really in any danger, was I?”
He didn’t answer. He would scare her away if he was honest. “The Sidhe protected us.” This time, but there was no guarantee that they would do so again.
“I’m confused. I thought the Sidhe cursed you. Why would they help you?”
“Tradition. They’ve trapped me here. They don’t intend to harm, but their powers are limited too. There might be another reason.”
She crossed her arms and tilted her head as if she’d reached her limit of believing him. “Which is…?”
“The Sidhe placed us purposely in intimate situations, because they believe I’m ready to be released of my burden. Maybe they believe you’re the to one to help with the ritual.”
“Like some kind of spell?”
He nodded, but she didn’t say if she would help.
“Why can’t you leave this mountain?”
“If I left, I wouldn’t be able to break the curse. And it’s my duty to protect this area. It’s now time for a ritual, and with a worthy offering I can break the curse.” He straddled the log, inching closer so his legs touched her body. When the stiffness relaxed in her shoulders from his Glamour, he lightly stroked her arm and then her back with his fingertips. She shivered. Yes, finally, she was again responding to him.
She rested her hand on his thigh. “I just don’t know how to take all of this,” she said softly. “How do you change form?”
“If I can capture a glimpse of the moon, I can change into a man for a time.”
“Do you know who you are when you’re the deer?”
He studied her face. Would he need to use more of his Glamour to avoid frightening her? “No, when I’m the deer, that’s all I know. I’m aware of the Sidhe and that I’m a protector of the forest. As a man, I only have vague memories of the deer.”
She nodded, looking a little sleepy from the push of Glamour. “How do you break the curse?”
He stared into the fire. Was this the right time to ask her? “I’ve not had the opportunity before. I must make an offering during the second full moon of the month on the eve of Samhain—tomorrow.”
“What kind of offering?”
“An offering of milk and curds within the stone circle.”
“That sounds easy. Curds, you mean butter?”
He nodded. “The Sidhe are said to be descendants of the gods who control the ripening of crops and the yields of cattle. Milk and butter are offered to honor their efforts. But there be another offering.” He hesitated again, fearing he’d lose her trust. “I have to fall in love and pledge my life to a maiden in a dance of bliss—make love to her.”
Carolyn abruptly pulled away and nearly fell off the back of the log, but he caught her arm. She jumped up and shouted, “Oh, that’s slick. And I fell for it.” She perched her hands on her hips and stomped around the campfire. “That was certainly the most creative line I’ve ever heard. All just to get me into bed? Damn, I’m such a fool. I don’t know how you did the magician thing, put those images in my head—it must be hypnosis—but it was a good trick.” She shook her head and glared at him. “You should leave.”
The anger in her eyes made his heart drop to his gut like lead. She thought this was all a wild story to get her to have sex. Her lips pressed together and quivered as if trying to hold back an outburst of swear words. Then she sighed. “I’m not sure what to believe just yet.”
He looked at the moon, then stood and walked to her. If he failed to get her to share in his ritual, he would be cursed to be a beast by day and a man by moonlight for at least another eighty years. A little manipulation couldn’t hurt. He had to get her to help him.
“I regret upsetting you, Carolyn. I didn’t mean to. I won’t visit you here again.” But he would after she calmed down.
“Rory, wait.”
The depth of sorrow in her words stung deeply. He might have a willing partner. There was still time. One more day. Tomorrow he could get her to stand in the center of the circle with the offering…
Carolyn took a step closer and touched his chest. “Wait.” She swallowed, tears glistened in her eyes.
Then the forest darkened, the bluish glow from the moon streaming down through bare tree branches faded. Rory’s gaze shot up as a cloud drifted over the moon.
“No!” he shouted.
“What’s wrong?”
He glanced at her hand resting on his shoulder as his body became diaphanous, then changed into the white stag. Carolyn sucked in air, her knees gave way and she collapsed on the dewy earth.